Hold Your Breath
by momoxtoshiro
Summary: "You won't be alone at such an important time as long as I'm around, so you'll just have to deal with me." Spending a special New Years together, he never thought he'd hear her say something so kind. First fic of 2011! Happy New Year!


**So after I wrote White Lies, White Christmas, I figured I'd write a quick New Years fic for them and this idea just blossomed. I only intended it to be like 5 pages long on a Word document, but like every other KWMS fic I've written, it wound up being about 13. I don't even try, honestly XD Not that you mind ^~^**

**Please enjooy!  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kaichou wa Maid-Sama!**

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Hold Your Breath

"I can't believe he's making me come here at such an hour." Misaki grumbled underneath her breath as she tightened the scarf around her neck.

A light flurry was spiraling down, dancing lightly on the tiny breeze that floated by, tugging her hair forward over her shoulders. People were bustling about the streets and sidewalks, some in pairs, and some with families and children.

As Misaki weaved between two jocund girls, she realized that there was not a single person within her line of vision who was not smiling or laughing. Many were on cell phones, texting or talking with excited voices and the din of merriment quickly blended into the background of Misaki's mind.

A large clock towered over the crowd of people as they gathered in the snow-covered park, it's large, skinny hands ticking slowly around in a circular motion. Misaki checked the time to make sure she was not late for her…'meeting' with Usui; she would never admit to herself that this was a date.

_There's no way. He's obviously just bored with nothing to do tonight and decided to drag me into his games._ Even though Misaki had this supposed realization, she did not allow herself to wonder why she had decided to accept his offer.

Shoving her frozen hands into her white jacket's pockets, she shuffled through the remaining crowd of people to stand beneath the giant clock. It was 11:30, New Year's Eve, and she was 15 minutes early to their rendezvous location. However, she was hardly astonished when she spotted Usui already waiting for her several yards away.

"Good evening, Ayuzawa." He said smoothly as he approached her. He was dressed in a black coat with a pale golden scarf wrapped about his neck, a nearly perfect contradiction to her own attire.

"D-Don't say it like that." She protested instantly. "It makes you sound weird. Like a butler or something." She huffed.

"And isn't that suitable? A butler and a maid. Scandalous." He chuckled.

"S-Shut up you perverted outer-space alien!" she snapped. "I've only been here half a second and you're already getting on my nerves." She mumbled.

"Well than, pardon me. I'll have to make up for it, then." Slowly, he extended his hand and found hers, brushing his long fingers over the back of her cold hand. Misaki's breath hitched in her throat for a second and she forced herself to keep silent and not burst into outraged comments. Instead, she took a deep breath and let her shoulders fall along with her gaze, staring at the snow-covered ground as Usui smirked at her embarrassment. "There. Have your nerves calmed down at all?" He wondered.

"Not at all." She mumbled. "If anything you've only made things worse." She stated as she felt her heart thumping against her ribcage.

The blonde boy merely chortled softly and released her hand. Misaki found herself briefly missing the warmth that lingered there, but quickly shook her head to regain her composure.

"S-So what are we supposed to be doing, exactly, anyway?" She asked, taking a tiny step back from him and raising her head to meet his emerald gaze. She had not realized that she already knew the answer to her own question.

"My, my, Prez, did you forget already?" Usui smiled, leaning in closer.

_D-Damn. I completely just blurted that out without thinking. Great. Now he'll never let me live it down_. She cursed inwardly.

"Don't you remember?" The boy continued. "When you asked me if I had any plans for New Years and I told you I'd be spending it alone since there's no one living with me?"

"Alright-" she tried to shut him up but he pressed on.

"And you selflessly agreed to spend the end of the year with me because 'even though you're not related to me, it's better than being alone'?"

"Alright, I remember!" she shouted this time. "You can shut up now." She said in a smaller voice.

"Sorry." He laughed. "But you were just too cute."

"I'm ignoring that." She informed him. But then, the daily annoyance that shown in her eyes whenever she was with him melted into something…warmer, and a small, wistful smile spread across her lips. "But like I said, it's horrible to be alone at such a time. So even if I'm not your family or anything like that, I'm better than nothing. You won't be alone at such an important time as long as I'm around, so you'll just have to deal with me." She crossed her arms and turned away from him as she finished, her breath puffing up around her.

Usui was speechless for a moment before he smiled.

"Aw. Prez just said something really cool." He teased.

"Sh-Shut up!" she snapped, turning on him and balling her hands into fists at her sides. "C-Come on. I'm getting cold and tired from standing so let's go find some place to sit." She suggested.

But as Misaki turned away from him again, Usui could not control his urges and reached out, pulling her into a loose embrace from behind. Misaki gasped lightly and her heart nearly made its way up her throat, but she stayed put and kept quiet.

"Thanks, Ayuzawa." He murmured into her ear. "And…don't say things like you're 'better than nothing' or you'll 'just have to do'. Don't belittle yourself so much. You're the one and only person I'd want to be with on a night like tonight, or on any night or on any day at any time. You have no idea how much this means to me…" he trailed off, not even sure if she was listening to him or not; but of course she was.

For once, he was speaking his mind and letting himself spill out his feelings instead of acting like nothing was wrong in order to not trouble her.

Misaki smiled to herself and let her eyes close for a moment, allowing his arms to tighten around her shoulders and not minding when he rested his chin on her shoulder. _You're lucky it's New Years._ She thought. _This is my gift to you, Baka Usui._

After a moment or so had gone by, she turned her head and pushed her forehead against his arm.

"Hey. Didn't I say we should go find a place to sit?" she wondered.

Usui smiled and took her bait. "Oh, right." He thanked her silently as he let his arms slide away from her body. "There's a free bench over there. Come on."

He took her hand and pulled her several yards over to a bench at the edge of the park. It was atop a very small hill, giving them a perfect view of the clock but without the masses of people crowding around to disrupt them. There were only roughly 5 minutes left until midnight now, and the number of people gathering around was increasing by the second. The excited din drifted across the open stretch of snow that separated the crowd from the pair of Seika High students and sent feelings of warmth and excitement through each of them.

"Are your hands cold?" Usui's question came out of absolutely nowhere and made the girl jump. She followed his amused glance to her lap where she was subconsciously twirling the ends of her scarf around her bare hands.

"Ah! N-No, not really." She stuttered, quickly halting in her actions. "It's just something I do. I always need to be doing something with my hands or holding something." She explained.

"Is that so?" he asked, sliding closer to her. "Well than how about this?" He slipped his palms onto her lap, underneath her fingers and gently squeezed her hands. Misaki's golden eyes widened for a second before she relaxed again, letting her fingers curl into the curves of his hands. As Usui leaned in closer to her, Misaki began to realize what it was he intended to do.

"Wait." She stopped him, looking to the side bashfully. "I-Isn't this something _couples _usually do on New Years?"'

"Are we not a couple?" he wondered.

"B-Baka! Not like _that_…"

"Oh, really?" he smirked. "I don't believe you."

_Yeah. Now that you mention it, me neither_. She agreed silently.

"B-But still…" she let her voice trail off, at a loss for further words of protest.

"If you don't want to, than just stop me." He told her, with a hint of seriousness in his tone; obviously he never wanted to do anything that would make her feel uncomfortable.

"Baka Usui…it's not that I _don't _want to…it's just…" she sighed. "It doesn't feel right, for _us_."

"I'm afraid I don't follow." He tilted his head to one side.

"I mean, there are couples all over the world who are going to be…k-kissing," she had a bit of trouble saying the word so blatantly. "They do it every year, always trying to be the last kiss of the old year or the first kiss of the new one. But for some reason…" she could not believe she was actually babbling on about such nonsense in front of him. "For some reason, I want…ours to be…more different. Special." She finished.

A silence floated by afterward and the girl shuffled her feet in the thin layer of snow, hunching her shoulders and squeezing Usui's hands in embarrassment at what she had just blurted out.

"You…" Usui murmured, looking up past his blonde locks, his gaze searching for hers. "Are way too cute, Misa-chan."

"A-Ah!" an adorable noise escaped her throat, somewhere halfway between a gasp and a whimper, but she was speechless nonetheless for a minute.

"Well then," Usui continued. "We'll just have to be better than all those other couples, now won't we? I have the perfect idea." He promised, locking eyes with her. Her face was flushed cherry red as she fumbled for words that might convey comprehensible language.

"W-What are you-?"

"What am I thinking?" He guessed, before glancing at the clock over the park. It was now a mere two minutes or less until the marking of the New Year. "You'll find out soon enough." He said, turning his gaze back to her. "Although, the time of this clock may be a little off…" he went off mumbling to himself and Misaki strained to piece together what he intended to do. "Well then, we'd better begin." He decided suddenly.

"B-Begin what?" she asked, trying not to let the girly squeak in her voice show.

"We're going to fulfill your wish." He stated as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. In return, she gave him a blank stare that pondered if he should be considered legally retarded.

"What?"

"Allow me to clarify." This time, he leaned in so close that she knew he could hear her heart pounding like a stampede of horses. "We won't be sharing the last kiss of this year, nor the first one of next year; we'll be sharing _both_."

"W-Wait, hold on a second. I'm not exactly following here." She tried to slide away from him but the arm of the bench prohibited it. "How exactly can we pull that off?" she wondered, various scenarios swirling through her head.

"Simple enough;" he stated with one final glance at the clock. "Hold Your Breath."

"Wha-" but before Misaki could even hope to question him further, Usui pressed his lips against hers in a warm, passionate kiss.

Misaki closed her eyes, but on the inside, her mind was swirling like an ocean torrent during a tsunami, but as the seconds ticked by, she finally just allowed all thoughts to be erased from her mind; all other thoughts aside from him, that is.

The harsh, painfully loud beating of her heart gradually began to die down as the seconds continued, and she felt his hands clutch hers. She was vaguely aware of the shouts and cheers of the final countdown of the people in the park as the clock turned its hands, bringing them into the New Year. She knew that most of those couples were probably just beginning to kiss now, as were thousands of others within the country, but Usui was right; _their _kiss was more special, unique.

However, Usui still did not pull away even after the countdown had finished, and Misaki was losing her air rapidly. The oxygen she was receiving by breathing through her nose was not nearly enough to suffice for the amount she was losing to him at her lips.

She tried to pull away, not that she particularly _wanted _to, but rather that at this point she _needed _to, but yet again was stopped as her back pressed against the bench. She squeezed his hands desperately, quietly warning him that she could not take much more of this. _Usui!_ She wanted to scream his name, but all she could do was think it silently.

It was like slow, torture, but it was so passionate and wonderful that Misaki wondered if she was actually beginning to enjoy it.

Just when she was sure she was about to lose consciousness, Usui slowly began to pull away. Misaki's deathlike grip on his hands finally weakened as she burst out into uncontrollable gasps. Usui smirked and needed to hold himself back from laughter as she shot him a glare that said 'are you trying to freaking KILL me?' Her shoulders and chest were heaving and her breath would not cooperate with her lungs for the next moment or so, therefore all she could do was send icy daggers at him through her eyes.

"Happy New Year, Prez!" he cheered in his idiot-voice.

"BAKA USUI!" She screeched with massive effort, expelling half of her air supply all over again. "Why…why did you…?" but she could not finish and began panting once more.

"Well we had the first _and_ last kisses, just like you wanted." He informed her with a devilish smile.

"You idiot…" she wheezed.

"Sorry." He apologized, though he hardly sounded like he meant it. "But it's not _my_ fault you were kissing back." He jeered.

"Wah-I was not _kissing back_! I was _trying _to get you _off _ of me so I wouldn't have to spend New Years in the hospital!" she defended.

"Uh-huh." He nodded dismissively. "You keep telling yourself that."

"Why you…" she fumed.

"But Ayuzawa, if you didn't like it, then why are you still holding my hands?" he wondered.

"Idiot! I'm not-!" but she trailed off as soon as she realized that he was right; her hands were clutching his as though for dear life.

"Now, now, Ayuzawa," he moved closer again. "You shouldn't lie."

"At least let me catch my breath this time." She sighed, closing her eyes helplessly. Usui took advantage of her opening and swooped in to peck her lips again, resulting in her to cry out in surprise before bashfully clamming her jaws shut. "Damn you." She growled.

He laughed and she pouted, huffing her breath out into the chilly night air.

"But seriously, Ayuzawa, thank you for tonight." He said earnestly, gazing down into her irises and causing her heart to melt all over again.

"L-Like I said." She straightened up to meet his gaze equally. "I'd never let you be alone on such an important night." She finished.

"Right." He nodded, smiling. "Thank you."

"Don't expect me to be doing this every night, though, you perverted outer-space alien!" she warned him with a shadow of her President-like grin.

"Okay, okay." He agreed.

"And…" Misaki went on, making him curious as to what else she had to say.

But before he could query her on her thoughts, she had already pressed her lips against his, curling their fingers together as she strained upward to reach him.

She pulled away all too soon and Usui was rendered motionless for a brief second.

"Don't expect us to be doing that every single day, either." She finished.

"Right." He chuckled.

"Happy New Year." She murmured.

"Happy New Year." He agreed.

One final time, their lips met, as if to seal away the old year and open up all the wide ranges of possibilities for the one to come.

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**A/N: And let us hope we see MUCH more love and romance between them in the years to come! ;3 **

**Happy New Year, everyoooone! Thanks for all your support!**

**Please review!**


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